Mccormick's Creek Elementary Sch, Spencer IN

Original Research by School Decision on Mccormick's Creek Elementary Sch

McCormick’s Creek Elementary School serves students from prekindergarten through sixth grade in Spencer, Indiana, as part of the Spencer-Owen Community Schools district. This is a regular public school—not a charter or magnet school—and draws from a small town that serves as the county seat of Owen County.

Spencer itself is a compact community organized around a historic town square dominated by the Owen County Courthouse. The housing stock is varied, with modest single-family homes, Victorian and Greco-Roman designs along certain streets, and some apartments. Downtown has seen revitalization efforts and supports a cluster of independently owned shops and restaurants. Major employers include manufacturing, retail trade, health care and social assistance, and the school district itself. The town is growing slowly, and its civic anchors include a Carnegie library, a YMCA, several parks, and the MyPath recreational trail. McCormick’s Creek State Park and Owen-Putnam State Forest lie close by, offering outdoor access for families.

McCormick’s Creek has a student enrollment that is small relative to many elementary schools, and the student body is overwhelmingly white. More than half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a share that indicates a significant level of economic need in the community.

State testing results are available from the ILEARN assessments for grades three through eight. In math, just above half of tested students scored at the proficient level or above. In English language arts, the figure was lower, with less than half of students reaching proficiency. Science results were below half as well. These are academic attainment numbers a parent may want to explore further with the school, particularly the ELA result, to understand how the school supports literacy and what interventions are in place. The district recently completed a substantial facilities investment—publicly reported as a multimillion-dollar construction-related capital outlay—that has affected the learning environment across its schools, including this one.

The school serves only elementary and middle grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. Program offerings, staffing details, and discipline data were not available in the provided sources. The comparison data set for this entity was too small to place the school relative to other districts in Owen County.

For a family considering McCormick’s Creek, the picture is of a small, rural elementary school serving a community with modest economic resources. The town offers a walkable downtown square, outdoor recreation nearby, and slow growth. The school’s academic proficiency numbers, particularly in reading, sit below what many families might hope for, and a conversation with the school about its curriculum and support structures would be a reasonable step. The recent district-wide facilities investment suggests physical improvements to the school environment.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grades 3-854%

School 54% · District 39% · ▲ 15 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median

English language arts

Grades 3-843%

School 43% · District 36% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median

Science

Grades 3-840%

School 40% · District 37% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 1 pts below state median

Social studies

Grade 531%

School 31% · District 27% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 2 pts below state median

This schoolSpencer-Owen Community Schools, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income21%Higher-income52%32 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income39%Higher-income48%10 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income36%Higher-income60%24 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income36%Higher-income45%9 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income46%Higher-income62%16 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income73%Higher-income70%3 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income50%Higher-income60%10 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income36%Higher-income32%4 pp gap